The Conversation
by Linda4HIM59
Summary: This is just a shortie, written for the October 2010 Forum Picture Challenge - I won! LOL. It's a private conversation between our beloved Michaela and Sully after they've spent the night alone in the woods.  They reminisce about their shared memories.


_Author's Note: Okay, I haven't been putting up my short stories because they're usually not very well received on ff – because if you can't see the pics that inspired the story, I guess they don't make much sense. Anyway, this month I won the challenge! LOL. So I'm posting the story. The pics were 1) Sully and Michaela, he's kissing her fingers (screen cap from the 'honey and berries' scene) and 2) the final pic of the pilot episode – everyone at the table at Christmas._

**THE CONVERSATION**

**(October 2010 Forum Picture Challenge)**

**By**

**Linda Ellen**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (but those people aren't using them anyway!)_

_. _

Husband and wife sat facing each other on a warm summer morning, she clad only in her chemise and pantaloons...he only in his buckskins, unaware of the surrounding sounds of the forest...unaware of anything actually other than...each other.

As they gazed at each other with love-filled eyes, Sully clasped Michaela's right hand in his. Then reverently, _worshipfully_ he closed his eyes and pressed his lips to each of her fingers as she lovingly smoothed his long hair back from his face with her other hand.

Finally he allowed his eyes to rise and meet hers again. What he saw there caused his breath to catch. _How was he so lucky?_ To have found such a woman – so vibrant, so special, so beautiful – that loved him with the depth of emotion he saw now in those beautiful mismatched jade/russet eyes.

"Last night was so wonderful, Sully," Michaela whispered as she gazed lovingly into her husband's eyes, so amazingly blue in the soft morning light. "I'm sorry I was angry with you...and I'm glad now that you kidnapped me," she added with a twinkle.

"I'm sorry too," he murmured, his eyes shifting back and forth between hers as they pierced to her very soul. "I hate it when we fight. I feel..._lost_...when you're mad at me. Like part of me is missin'."

She smiled in understanding as she caressed his face with her fingertips, tracing the line of his chiseled jaw, gently letting her nails run over the morning stubble on his chin, then up to softly brush his hair back from his forehead, tucking a strand behind his ear.

"I feel the same way. I hate that we've been drifting apart lately...I said such awful things to you. You should turn me over your knee," she added impishly and he chuckled softly, imagining prim and proper Dr. Michaela Quinn hauled over her husband's knee and spanked.

"Nah," he whispered, leaning up to press his lips softly to hers. "I'd much rather _love_ your anger away. It's more fun."

She grinned into his eyes, blushing a soft pink as she remembered how he'd done just that the night before as they camped out alone together in _their cave_. "I admit...you _are_ good at that," she murmured, hearing him laugh sensually as she leaned in for another kiss.

Several minutes later, she pressed her forehead against his, relishing in this time alone with the man she loved – away from the responsibilities of the clinic, the children, and the town council. "It's funny," she admitted softly, "For the life of me, I can't remember what I was so angry about."

He chuckled out loud at that. "Me neither."

He turned her then and settled her in front of him as they gazed out over the acres of forest below the high cliff.

Taking a deep, peaceful breath, caressing his arms as they hugged her middle, she murmured thoughtfully, "I can't believe we've been married five years already – and known each other for eight! Where has the time gone?"

He shook his head slowly as he thought back over the years.

"I still remember the first time I laid eyes on ya. So prim and proper in your Boston _travel_ dress...until ya fell in the mud," he added, loving to tease her about her most embarrassing moment. She shook her head, used to his teasing. Expecting it. "But when ya took up for me and Black Kettle against Loren about that stupid sign...I knew you were special. You know...when I looked into your eyes that first time...I think the hold Abby's ghost had on me started to break right then - I was just too stubborn ta realize it."

"You were so _mean_ to me," she responded, "after I fell off Bear and you just looked at me as I lay on the ground at your feet - without even extending a hand to help me up. I thought you were the rudest man I'd ever met!" she added with a chuckle.

"Aw, I was kinda mad at ya." He admitted, and then shook his head with a grin at the absurdity of it. "I was mad that you had the power to change my life. I knew it...could feel it – and I didn't like it, cause I was used to wallowin' in my own misery and didn't wanna change." He hugged her to him in true gratitude and pure love. "But I'm so glad ya dragged me, kickin' and screamin', outta my old ways."

"Well...I had some old ways myself that I needed to be _dragged out of_," she answered. "Like too much pride, stubbornness, and as Olive once told me – acting like I knew all the answers."

"I was so much in awe of you...did ya know that?" he asked sweetly, pressing a kiss to her cheek as he breathed the familiar scent of her hair.

"In awe of me?" she asked, leaning her head back against him, enjoying his touch.

"Yep...remember that night we brought Black Kettle to the homestead in the rain and you operated on him – practically in the _dark? _You knew just what to do – and ya saved his life. I stood there amazed. And you know what?" he added in a whisper. She felt a tingle rush through her at the feel of his warm breath in her ear.

"What?" she managed.

"I knew right then what a good doc you were...and I knew I woulda trusted you with my life if it came to it. Later, when Rankin and his men beat me and threw me down that hill...I knew I was hurt bad and all I kept thinkin' was I had to get myself _to_ ya...that if I could just _get_ to ya...I'd be alright."

"That's why you said my name when Cloud Dancing found you..."

"Yep... well, _one_ of the reasons..." he admitted with a half grin.

"Oh Sully...when Cloud Dancing brought you to me and I saw how badly you had been beaten...I nearly forgot all my medical knowledge," she paused, shuddering as she remembered. "It took every ounce of control I could muster to keep functioning. I was so afraid you had internal injuries and that you would slip away from me during the night...I stayed up with you until dawn, begging God to let you live. I loved you even then, I just hadn't admitted it to myself yet," she admitted quietly.

"I think I could feel that...it was what pulled me through," he returned, smiling as he remembered her steadfast care through the terrible days that followed and her constant assurance that he would walk again.

They sat together quietly for a while then, watching a pair of hawks soaring lazily overhead, each deep in thought.

Finally Sully continued, "By the time Christmas came that first year...I knew without a doubt that I loved you...that's why I walked all that way, through a blizzard, to give ya your present. And you _know_, don't ya...I only gave the kids presents so it wouldn't be so obvious that I was smitten with _you_," he chuckled softly. She smiled in pleasure as she remembered.

"I was hopin' you'd ask me ta stay for supper...," he continued, laughing out loud at the memory. "I kept hesitatin', thinkin' you'd never get around ta askin!"

"I was so afraid that you would think it forward of me...plus I knew being in the homestead made you uncomfortable. But...you seemed different that evening, more relaxed – you even smiled!" She chuckled at the memory. "I remember thinking how nice your smile was...and that I wished you would smile more often. You're breathtakingly handsome when you smile, you know," she added sweetly, turning her head to meet his eyes. He winked and flashed a smile at her in gratitude of her compliment.

"I hadn't had much of a reason to smile before that...but you became my reason. I remember lookin' over at ya at the table, thinkin' how beautiful you looked, how sweet you were," he murmured, picturing the scene as if it were yesterday. "Then I looked around at the kids all dressed up. Sittin' there that night with all of you, in the homestead I built...it was like...like a dream come true. I kinda pretended you guys were my family."

Turning her in his arms so he could look in her eyes, he went on, "Michaela, I don't think I've ever told ya this, but...I'm _sorry_ it took me so long to let go of the past...to let myself feel _ready_ to love you." His tender, sincere words caused a tear to form in the corner of one eye as she gazed at her husband. He went on thoughtfully, "I guess it was guilt. I felt like I didn't _deserve_ to be happy. Deep down, I always felt responsible for Abby dyin', cause havin' my baby took her life."

"I knew you felt that way...and at times I wondered if you would ever forgive yourself," she murmured understandingly.

Leaning in for a sweet kiss, she added in a whisper, "I'm so glad you finally did."

He deepened the kiss, gratitude and love warming him from his head to his toes.

Pausing, he pulled back a bit to murmur, "Me too, sweetheart. _Me too_."

_**-The End.**_


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